60 Years of Scientific Excellence

When the Cancer Research Institute was founded in 1953, we knew then that immune-based treatments would transform cancer medicine. In more than six decades since, we've made numerous groundbreaking discoveries that have given more patients new hope today.

Second Annual Cancer Immunotherapy Month in June

In just a few days on June 1, the Cancer Research Institute will kick off the second annual Cancer Immunotherapy Month to increase awareness of cancer immunotherapy, a class of cancer treatment that mobilizes the immune system to fight the disease. Immunotherapy was named Science magazine’s 2013 Breakthrough of the Year, and is anticipated once again to dominate this year’s annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) beginning Friday this week.

“Cancer immunotherapy today is producing remarkable and durable remissions in some patients, and this is just the beginning.”

With significant support from the biotech and pharmaceutical industry as well as leading academic research hospitals, Cancer Immunotherapy Month is helping accelerate the development of immunotherapies by raising funds to support cancer immunotherapy research, increasing awareness and educating the public, and enlisting the help of scientists and clinicians around the world. As a major initiative of the month, CRI will profile immunotherapy patient success stories—one per day, each day in June—across a broad range of cancers including melanoma, prostate cancer, leukemia, lung cancer, ovarian cancer, and others. This series, called “30 Days, 30 Stories: Surviving Cancer through Immunotherapy,” will be hosted on a new website launching June 1, TheAnswerToCancer.org, which provides patients and their caregivers easy-to-understand information on cancer immunotherapy and connects them to immunotherapy clinical trials.

“Cancer immunotherapy today is producing remarkable and durable remissions in some patients, and this is just the beginning,” said Jill O’Donnell-Tormey, Ph.D., CEO and director of scientific affairs at the Cancer Research Institute. “Safe and powerful immune-based cancer treatments will become available for patients with other types of cancer over the next five to ten years, so there’s tremendous optimism that we are truly changing the face of cancer.”